Josh (00:00:48):
Welcome back to another episode of Think‌ ‌Different‌ ‌Theory. My name is Josh Forti, and honestly, my guest is already on here. I forgot to, you know, switch the screen over, so it was just me. But, we’ve got our guests on here, guys. His name is… which way am I pointing? This way. Joel freaking Kaplan. Joel, welcome back to season two of Think Different Theory. I gotta say, before… Hold on. Before you say anything, before you..

Joel (00:01:08):
Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Josh (00:01:08):
Before you talk. Listen, dude, you’re our number two most downloaded episode of season one, behind Brad Gibb. And you, I… I’ll just… I’ll… I’ll let you tell the audience how much that irks you.

Josh (00:01:31):
Guys, welcome back to the show, Think Different Theory. One of our most entertaining guests, Joel Kaplan. Joe.. thanks. Joel. Thanks so much for coming back on the show.

Joel (00:01:39):
Thanks so much for having me, Josh. Honestly, you’re an absolute legend, and I’m just so grateful to be here, and I’m pumped right now. I don’t know how you’re feeling after seeing Tony Robbins at Funnel Hacking Live, but like, I’m just trying to get into peak state all day, every day, all day, every day.

Josh (00:01:58):
Dude, he’s insane. Like I’ve… I’ve never sat through like a full Tony Robbins speech before, and it was on my birthday by the way. So it’s literally my birthday, I’m sitting there, and I’m like six rows into it, and he comes out and like, you could feel the energy in that room shift when he walks into that room. It was insane.

Joel (00:02:19):
Yeah. And I don’t know if you picked up on this. There was one moment. It was my biggest takeaway of the whole entire talk, when he ran through his affirmation out loud.

Josh (00:02:31):
Hmm.

Joel (00:02:32):
I don’t know if you picked up on that, but he has a personal affirmation that he goes through, and he shared it with the audience. He shared it out loud, and the amount of energy that took over his body, and his spirit, was insane. So what did I do? I walked out and I went and sat down and wrote my affirmations.

Josh (00:02:53):
I love it, dude. You’re an action taker of all action takers, dude. Like you’re the type of dude that’s like, you’re sitting there on stage, and Russell will say something, or Tony will say something, or whatever, and like, right there you’re like, “Let’s apply right now.”

Joel (00:03:07):
That’s it. That’s my golden nugget. Let’s go.

Josh (00:03:09):
That’s awesome, bro. Second year Funnel Hacking Live, third year? How… how many years have you gone?

Joel (00:03:13):
Second year.

Josh (00:03:14):
Second year. Was Tony there last year?

Joel (00:03:17):
No,

Josh (00:03:17):
no, he was there two years ago in Orlando. But he wasn’t who the keynote last year. I wasn’t there. Do you remember, was it Garrett white? Probably. It was probably Gary.

Joel (00:03:26):
I don’t know man. To be honest, I’m so bad. Like I’m such a bad student and I feel like this just reflects my entire childhood. I went and I network 90% of the time.

Josh (00:03:39):
Yeah. Well and honestly, dude, that’s what you, that’s what you go there for. I mean, I was there, I have some friends on stage, so I had um, uh, Marley bear or Marley Jackson. I’m sorry, Marley. Jax was a friend of mine, Dan Henry and uh, Katherine Jones were all on stage, so obviously I had to be there for their speeches and, and cheer them on. But uh, other than that I was like, I watched Tom bill you, I watched Ryan holiday and every, all the other time I was just networking. I feel like people, they go to conferences dude and they try to consume too much information.

Joel (00:04:07):
Honestly, like with Tony, the biggest takeaways were getting the peak state fuel. Really excited. Be someone that’s at a level 10 and I don’t know if you remember, he went around and asked what level are you at? And everyone was like six, seven. I said, I think six. He was like, no one wants to date a sick, no one wants to date a six. And I was like, I’m going to hype myself up and get to a 10 and then I heard his affirmation and I was like, I’m going to take action on that. Right. The affirmation besides that, I left like I got some shit on from my friends. They were like, dude, why’d you leave Tony? I was like, I got what I needed. Yeah. Uh, it was the same thing with all the speakers.

Joel (00:04:44):
Like once I have the one thing, if I try to consume way too much, there’s just no way I’m going to implement it. Yeah. It’s going to create information overload and skinny my brain, a false sense of progress. And a false sense of momentum when in reality, I just need to take that one step forward. Yeah, I like that a lot too dude though. The false sense of uh, the false sense of progress cause I feel like that’s the problem is people, they go to these events and they get super, super hyped up and I mean we all do it. And then like you just said, we hit this, this state of like, Oh my God [inaudible] and then like you come home and it’s like, Ooh. And because your brain has not learned to like balance and figure things out like that, it’s really, really difficult.

Josh (00:05:26):
So I liked that a lot.

Joel (00:05:27):
And at the end of the day, like for me, funnel hacking live was just a big, big old party with all my good friends. Yeah. So it’s like part of me was like, you know what, I’m just going to be happy and enjoy this and treat it like a personal development wedding where it’s like you have all the people that you care about all there, but you’re also growing as an individual. Yeah. So I wasn’t as like harsh on myself if I missed a speaker. Like I really wanted to see Prince EA. I missed out on him and I was like, you know what, that’s okay cause

Joel (00:05:58):
I still got to connect with some people that I care a lot about. And at the end of the day, if that’s not what this is all about, then I don’t know what it’s not 100%. And I agree with that for sure. I know Steve posted something about like, Oh, you paid for this, um, front row. And I was like, fuck,

Josh (00:06:15):
front, front, front, row front. Right. Uh, is that your front and front riders stage taking notes and like once again to each their own. But Steve, Steve’s an introvert though and like Steve is not a networker and to be fair, Steve is also big enough now to where I don’t think Steve can really walk around the halls without like getting a million pictures taken or whatnot. Um, and uh, I mean that’s, I mean Steven Russell are boys, so I mean he’s up there, he’s taking his notes, he’s doing his thing. Um, but like I always love it when people are like, is it worth it for $1,000 to go to funnel hacking live? I’m like, yes, yes it is. It’s, it’s worth it. Just for the connection. I mean I closed 20, let’s see, three six 1824 20 (420) 620-6000 I closed $26,000 in deals at funnel hacking live. Okay. Like where else can you go and hang out and have a party and have a blast and get to see Tony Robbins and Russell and hang out and close that much in deal. It’s like it just doesn’t exist and at the end of the day,

Joel (00:07:13):
day like we are like the online marketers like look at this. I’m like in the office alone, it’s like you need people, even if you’re an introvert, you need people and these are the people that are going to be there to support you, that are going to be there to be a resource for you when things don’t work out. And now if I have an issue scaling from where I’m at now, like $300,000 a month to a million a month, I connected with at least five people that were at that level that I can personally reach out to on Facebook and ask them a question and they would not only know who I am but would also be willing to help me. Yeah. Well it doesn’t, that’s not worth $1,000. If that’s not worth $1,000. I don’t know. What is getting direct access to someone that’s doing over $10 million a year?

Josh (00:08:03):
Yeah. Who’s the guy that won? There was two people that won the a hundred million dollar a year award and one of them, uh, I don’t even know how to pronounce.

Josh (00:08:09):
Yeah, Arielle like the dude,

Joel (00:08:11):
he guess what? I went up and talked to him. That’s the power of funnel hacking live.

Josh (00:08:15):
You can chill in there.

Joel (00:08:17):
Yeah. Like I don’t know if you know what he does, but I was like, alright, are y’all like, what are you doing? And [inaudible] he was like, well, we sell to the government. I was like, what do you mean? He’s like, well, Argentina is my client and I’m like the country. And then he was like, and we got to lay in Columbia coming on board to say what?

Josh (00:08:45):
I asked him what he did. I said, I said, dude, you’ve been a a hundred million. Cause he came up to me. Funny story, I went up to him or I, man, I was walking by and I saw him on stage. Keep in mind, I had no idea who this dude was before. Finally, I can lie. He gets up on stage. I see he’s made $100 million. And I immediately like Facebook him, right? And we’re friends on Facebook. I was like, well that’s lit. And so, um, I’m walking and he comes up to me and he’s like, Josh, Oh my gosh, it’s so good to see you. Can we get a picture? And I was like, the heck, why are you asking for a picture with me, dude? Like I should be getting a picture with you. You made a hundred million bucks. So we get a picture. And I was like, all right dude, you gotta tell me what do you do? And his response was absolutely nothing. And I’m like, I’m like, what? He’s like, dude, my team does it all. And that’s the key to making $100 million. And I was like, honestly man, like what you notice? And I actually saw someone post something like this in the Facebook group

Joel (00:09:33):
for click funnels and it just resonated so hardcore. The people that are doing everything themselves that are stressed out are the ones that are barely scraping by. Yeah. And as you can see, the people on stage that are doing the two comma club X, the 50 million, that’s 75 million to a hundred million. The farther up the ladder you go, the more removed these people are because they understand the power of leverage and they understand the power of using other people’s time. So if you were to actually ask me, Hey Joel, how do you make the most out of funnel hacking live and absorb all the information? What I should have done is brought my team and told them to go listen to everything and figure out a way to implement one thing from every single speaker into our business. Yeah, no kidding. Because there’s absolutely no way that you could go and sit through every single speaker and implement everything. Right. Your brain cannot computate that yet. But guess what would happen if you had 10 people there learning on your behalf and they each learn the thing that they were good at. They were focused on the thing that they are doing. Yeah. So leverage. That’s the key to steal. Do you see Jeff Bezos writing code now for Amazon?

Josh (00:10:57):
Why do people have such a hard time with that though, bro? Like because, okay, let, let me tell you this. My big issue was I was like, nobody can do it as good as I can. Why do, why does it people have such a hard time letting go?

Joel (00:11:12):
Okay, that’s a great question. Um, I would say that they don’t trust themselves and therefore they can’t trust others and know that’s pretty deep. But, uh, if you really trusted your process, your strategy, your vision, your decision making, you’d have no problem letting go and passing it off to someone else. And I think that lack of trust in yourself and your own abilities to succeed and execute make you want to just grab everything and take full control. I think that’s one thing. And, uh, over time for example, like, and like I’m perfect example here

Joel (00:11:53):
because when I started my agency I was, it was extremely difficult for me to let go. It was extremely difficult for me to delegate and I was honestly stressed out all the time. Yeah. And I was burnt out. Like I remember days where I would wake up like 8:30 AM get breakfast and go up to my home office and work till I went to sleep. Yep. Yep. I’ve been there. Yeah. And um, I think it wasn’t until I just started to trust myself and the process and what we were building and that everything was going to be okay if I let go. Yeah. That I started to actually delegate and allow myself to leverage the power of leverage. Yeah. One of the interesting things about this. I was talking to Brad, Brad gave about this, uh, he called me like, I don’t know, like two or three days ago.

Josh (00:12:47):
And I was like, how are you dude? He’s like, dude, I’m doing all right. How are you? I was like, I’m great. And uh, he said, I just went through the most pain staking day ever. And I was like, Oh boy. What happened? He’s like, we sat down with our team and he’s like, was like Joel DMD me like eight times. That’s why it was so painstaking because Joel, you know, Brad, if you’re listening right now, I’m trying to get ahold of you, man. I want to give you money. I’ll connect you guys. I know how to get ahold of Brad. Um, I talked to him, I talked to him all the time and I saw your message, dude, I’m so bad at Facebook messages. It’s so terrible. Uh, so it was Brad, uh, Voxer, Voxer, Voxer. That’s how you get ahold of me. But, uh, I was talking to him and he said he just went through with his team and they dumbed down all of their processes and they’re going through and cause they want to be able to bring in more coaches.

Josh (00:13:37):
There were, they’re scaling fast, right? They want the $10 million a year award and now they’re scaling more and more. And so he’s like, we’re having to bring on coaches and he’s like, we don’t have time to train them. And so he’s like, what we’re doing is we’re literally going down and we’re ha they had somebody come in and question, literally w they would walk them through the process and they questioned every single step. So they’re like, Oh, why did you decide to do that? Why did you decide to do that? Oh, why is that one there? Oh wow. How would do this? And he’s like the whole entire day and we got like three hours worth of work done. Even though we were at it the entire day. And I was like, that sounds painful. He’s like, yeah, but when it’s all said and done, he’s like, now we’re going to have the system and process down in such a way that I can remove myself from it.

Josh (00:14:13):
And he’s like, and most people, and he said this and it like hit me like a ton of bricks and I was like, this is the problem of most people. He’s like, most people aren’t willing to go through that painstaking process of figuring out all the holes in their thing because they think that they’re the only ones that would ever be able to figure it out and understand it. And he’s like, when I just finally went and did it, he’s like, he’s going to be so fricking good when it’s all said and done. And I was like, boom. Right then and there. That’s how you go and are able to remove yourself from the process. But most people just aren’t willing to do the work. Definitely. Like for example, let’s say that I hire an account manager, right? And they cost me 3000 to $5,000 a month. Yeah. Most people are freaking out being like, Oh my God, this is a huge amount of, um,

Joel (00:14:53):
I can’t delegate that. But if you trusted in your ability to close more deals because you outsourced that task and now freed your time, yep. Then you would be totally willing to hire an account manager and go into the red. Maybe even so, because you would eventually have the time to go and sell more. Yup. But I think that lack of trusting yourself and what you’re doing is what ultimately prevents you deep down psychologically. Yeah. For example, it’s like right now we’re scaling new agencies and we’re building the entire team and delegating it all out. Right from the start. We have an account manager, we have a marketing manager, we have a closer and we have one VA to do everything or to do this new agency every time. We’re essentially launching, we’re, our goal is to launch a new agency every 120 days before months and we’re going to obviously oversee that team, but they’re going to be doing the day to day now.

Joel (00:15:56):
A lot of people would have a very hard time letting go of all those things because what if it doesn’t work? Now they’re in the red now it’s like, Oh my God, I lost a lot of money. Which ultimately comes down to not trusting yourself and what you’re doing and trusting the process. Yeah. But if you truly trusted the, the power of what you’re building, then you would have no problem going and going into the red hiring these people, knowing that in 60 or 90 days it’s going to turn into a profitable cash cow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Can I explain myself well there? Yes. I, and I think that the next step of this conversation is we’ve got to talk about what you do, right? So like the pitch of this was Joel agencies and agency, our Joel Joel agency, Joel Kaplan is an agency owner. Tell us what you do though.

Josh (00:16:45):
Cause you kill it dude. Like you are insane when it comes to this. Give us, give us a little bit of the backstory of what you do, who you are, and like kind of your, uh, skills and expertise. Because one of the things I really like about you is you have extreme focus in a certain area, but then like once you got to that point, like you’re not against doing multiple things, you’re against doing multiple things at once and it’s, it was so interesting to see how like you pivot and you’re like, okay, we built this up and then we went to here and we built, this one happened, now we’re doing this. So like explain to people what you do, how you do it and like what makes you so special with you? Great question. So at the core of everything, my mission is to make money and make a difference.

Joel (00:17:24):
I believe that that if we increase I financial status, we’re going to have more leverage to make a difference and make an impact in this world. At the end of the day, that’s what I’m all about. How do I do that? The way I do that is number one, I run a seven figure agency. It’s called Atlas digital. We do about $250,000 a month, not including ad spend. So if you include ad spend, it’s probably more like $350,000 a month. And I’m also launching new agencies. And the reason why I’m launching new agencies is because we have created the blueprint, essentially scale an agency to seven figures and then automate it and remove ourselves from the process. Now that was the whole vision for the past three years and about six to 10 I’d say six to 12 months ago, I started getting very frustrated with the coaching industry and I was tired of seeing all these agency owners that built an agency are like $10,000 a month that now we’re creating courses and coaching people and how to do the same.

Joel (00:18:32):
And I remember looking at them and being like, this is not ethical because I have an agency doing 25 times as much that I’m still currently running where I don’t even have to show up and these people are giving out the wrong advice. So then I decided that I have the power to really make a dent in the coaching space and really make a difference in people’s lives. So I started a coaching program called seven figure agency where we help people start and scale agencies to seven figures using the exact same blueprint that we use to scale our own agencies. And I’d say the most important piece of this entire thing is number one, I practice. I’m currently practicing what I’m teaching. Yeah. So all in all the information that I share with my students is the most up to date. It is not what worked last week. It is not what worked yesterday. It’s what’s working today. And that’s you. It’s for too. Now that I have a seven figure task, how that’s automated, I can really think longterm about my students and go above and beyond the hub. So I’d say those, I mean that’s pretty much what I do. I, I start and scale agencies and I teach people how to do the same thing. That’s awesome bro.

Josh (00:19:48):
That’s awesome. How did you get started in this though? Because I know a little bit of your backstory and for those of you that have listened to you, the, the first episode that we did together, we talked about this a little bit, but like for those people that are out there, it’s all, how old are you? 27. So you’re 27, you’re doing $280,000 a month. Oh, I want to say 28. Like, like someone had pho hiking LA. I was like, how old are you? I kept saying 28. I was like, wait, when’s your birthday? Uh, may 11, 1992. I’m 27 so, so May 11th, you’ll be 28. I just turned 26. Okay. So, um, for those people that are out there that have like been struggling at this or that are, she’ll try to figure out like, man, is this even possible for me? Where did you start? Like how did you get into this?

Joel (00:20:35):
Yeah, I think we all have this calling, right? That there’s something bigger and better out there when we’re working at our nine to fives. And it’s like this spirit that’s like telling you, Hey, if you don’t go out there and try to build your own thing and build your own dreams, like you’re going to have regret for the rest of your lives. And that’s, I don’t know if you’ve experienced that feeling if you’ve ever worked a nine to five, but I definitely had that feeling. What were you doing? What was your vibe before this? It was a marketing job. Is it a marketing job? And I’m like, I kept thinking to myself every day like a meant to be an entrepreneur. And actually a few years back I had started another company, but once I graduated college, I did go to school even though I don’t really believe in the education system.

Joel (00:21:25):
Um, but I did go to college and my parents pretty much begged me to get a job or like, please at least work for two years before you do this entrepreneurship thing, give it at least two years, get some experience. And I’m actually really grateful that they did because it gave me a different perspective. But those two years were very difficult. I was a very, um, I, I rebelled a lot at work. I always kinda did my own thing. I ignored what my, uh, peers told me to do and I really struggled because I knew I was meant for something bigger. I knew I was meant for something greater and I knew that if I didn’t take the leap and quit my nine to five and go for it, I would regret it for the rest of my life. And I always had, you know, side hustles here and there.

Joel (00:22:11):
I was doing some marketing gigs. I was doing some consulting. At some point I started an eCommerce shop and then I went to a meetup and I met this, uh, this weird guy named Marcos, ended up being my business partner and we were at the meetup and I’m a very confident guy. I do have a bit of an ego. And the guy at the meetup, it was a marketing meetup, had no idea what he was talking about. He had no idea what he was talking about, Marcos or the other, the guy that was running the meetup. And I’m not going to lie. Like I was an asshole. Like I called them out hardcore and I was like, dude, you have no idea what you’re talking about. You should not be running this meetup. And then Marcos was like, Oh, I like that guy pointing to me.

Joel (00:23:00):
It’s like this guy knows what he’s talking about because he’s calling this guy out in front of all these people at a meet up. Again, I’m not a, I’m not proud of that behavior, but what it is much younger. I was probably a bit insecure at that time about where I was at and what I was capable of. But then goes was like, yo, Joel, let’s, uh, let’s go get some coffee. And then we started talking, we started talking, uh, then eventually we met up a few times and I think the fourth time we met he was like, yo, I have, I just landed like three new clients last week and it pissed me off so much. I was like, how the hell is this? He was like 21 is 20 year old landing clients when he knows nothing about marketing because Marco’s also didn’t know anything about marketing, which is why he wanted to bring me on board.

Josh (00:23:53):
Right.

Joel (00:23:53):
And he was like, yo, uh, I was like, how the hell does this, is this guy landing clients? He does know, he doesn’t know anything about marketing. He’s worse than the guy at the meetup. And he like drove me nuts inside and I think it lit a fire and it made me really want to be a part of it. So then eventually I was like, all right Marcos, if I, if we hit 10 K a month, I quit my job and come and do this thing with you. And he was like, all right, sweet.

Joel (00:24:30):
I’d say not even two weeks later we hit 10 K a month. It was like some miracle that like came down and just everything lined up perfectly. We hit 10 K a month and you think that, uh, it just took off from here. It did it. There was some crazy down periods, which I’ll get to, but I was like, all right, well, we hit 10 K a month. I’m going to go ahead and quit my job. So I went into work the next day, put in my two weeks notice, quit my job, equip my job. Two weeks later, we’re back down to $3,000 a month. We lost like most of the clients. So now I’ll freaking out. I lost my job. I love my job, but okay. Okay. So let, let me stop you right there. You are. You quit your job. You’re feeling pretty confident, obviously, because woo, $10,000 a month, right?

Josh (00:25:21):
Which we know now, it ain’t squat. Especially for two people. He got taxes in there. You got costs in there. I mean, like 10,000 isn’t a whole lot of money. Now you’re back down to 3000 a month. Are you like, Oh my gosh, I got to go get a job again? Or are you like, I’m committed to figuring this out?

Joel (00:25:37):
Not yet. I ha I had not reached the point where I was like, I need to get a job. Um, we stuck it out, I’d say for like 90 days and it just was not clicking like for three months. It was not clicking, it was not clicking, it was not clicking. And this is where eventually I got to the point, and I think I mentioned this on the last podcast, I was so stressed out and I was so defeated that I went ahead and filled out a job application.

Josh (00:26:09):
Oh wow. So you did get to that point. I eventually did not. Right. Not at the three Kmarts once we had three cows, like, okay, well this is not what I signed up for. We just dropped from 10 K to three K. we lost like three clients just like that. Right. Um, they didn’t rub the following month and uh, I was freaking out and um, I decided, you know what, we’re going to stick through this. But I’d say 90 days later things did not, had not clicked and things had not evolved. And I remember calling my dad being like, dad, should I fill out a job application? And he was like, well, fill it out. Go take, take the interview. But continue to ride it out. He said, you can definitely fill out the job application but continue to ride it out. And I filled out the job application.

Joel (00:27:04):
I even submitted a personalized video stand out because I was desperate. I was very stressed out as very insecure. I did not believe in myself at that point in time. And luckily they turned me down. I am so grateful. It was like a sign from above. I am so grateful that they turned me down. I remember calling my dad back and saying, Hey, they’re they, they said no. He said, okay, Joel, write it out for just another month. In that month we took off. Wow. And so what changed? What changed in that month that allowed you to go and that’s a, that’s a great question. Uh, we definitely committed to going to BNI and uh, like stepping our game up. And by taking off, I mean like we got to like 15 Kim on six or seven clients. I’m not, we w we then get to 250. But you started that trajectory of like, okay, now things are starting to click.

Josh (00:28:02):
Now. I understand, okay, we got to do this, we got to do this. And you started having momentum in the right direction to where you started believing in yourself again.

Joel (00:28:08):
We could, we committed hardcore to BNI. I started going to be an I now. It wasn’t only Marcos going, it was also me going. So we doubled our input in terms of going to an a and B is a great question. Uh, this is why you’re here to help clarify. These are the things that I don’t think to clarify, right? That’s why I’m here to ask you questions. BNI is a local networking group where you meet with other business owners in your area and you will essentially, it’s a referral network. They refer business to you. You refer business to them, you land a few of them as clients, they land you as a client.

Joel (00:28:49):
So by having me and Marcos go, we doubled our, uh, our presence cause we went to two separate groups. I think I landed like three or four clients that in that one month you ended like three or four clients. And, uh, that’s, I mean that’s kind of what took us to that next little level. Um, but I think the, the reason why I share this story, Josh, is because a lot of people look at me now and they think maybe I have some unique advantage. Maybe I have some unique ability, but the reality is like I was in a state where I almost quit. Yeah. Yeah. And no, no. I have a seven figure business that’s fully automated and I almost gave up on that. Yeah. Well you’re a multi seven figure at this point and multi seven figure and I have another seven figure.

Joel (00:29:42):
So not just one, but two. And I almost gave up on that and it just makes me wonder like, what is possible if we just keep going and push through that pain and push through those challenges. What, what do you think though is the, the light goes like something clicked right and I’m okay. Yeah, it was you landed a client or like, yes, there’s the, the outward fig that clicked. Right. But like there, I feel like there’s a time that in every success stories journey, right, where something goes in clicks inside of them, inside of you that goes okay, like this is the thing that ultimately like shifted for me. And like I think that for some people you do need to focus on the exterior of like, Hey, just get that first client or Hey, just do that. But I think for most people, especially the people that have been in the game for awhile, there’s a mental shift that happens.

Josh (00:30:42):
And if we can figure out what that mental shift is, then everything else kind of falls into place from that. What do you think that mental shift is?

Joel (00:30:48):
Obviously there’s a lot of factors, but you know, and I don’t want to say it’s this warm thing, right? Right. But I like looking back, I remember when I didn’t land the job, I told myself, okay, I’m going to go all in. And like Tony Robbins talks about burning the ships going all in on your mission no matter what. I think that mental shift happened in some way, shape, or form. Hmm. Interesting. And I think when we just started the agency, I was still kind of in and out, should I do this? Should I not do this? The fact that I was thinking about applying for a job and that was in my subconscious shows you that I wasn’t all in.

Josh (00:31:30):
Yeah, for sure.

Joel (00:31:31):
And I think once I didn’t get the job, and I remember speaking with my dad, he said, just write it out for another four weeks. That’s when I was like, you know what, I’m going to go all in no matter what. Yeah. Well, or at least started moving in that direction. I’m sure it was not like an overnight thing, like going from someone that’s not as confident, insecure to just all of a sudden, yeah, I’m all in rah rah, rah. I don’t think it was overnight, but I do think there was a shift in that direction that really turned the page for me. Yeah. And I agree with that. I was watching, um, an interview on impact theory one time with um, uh, John Maxwell, John C. Maxwell, I mean expert in leadership. I mean probably the top leadership coach in the world. And, um, he was sharing his story about how, uh, actually I think the episode just came out about how he got into leadership and they said, if you study, if you studied leadership or if you study any subject for one hour a day, every single day in five years, you’d become an expert at it, right?

Josh (00:32:31):
And so he started going through and he said about two and a half years in to studying it, you know, he kept asking himself the question like, all right, like, when am I gonna be a great leader? When am I going to be a great leader? What am I going to be a great leader? And eventually he started asking himself the question of like, okay, wow, like how far can I go with this? Right? And there was this mental shift, and he said, that’s the day that everything changed for me because he changed the target. He changed the goal, right? He changed what it was after. And I think that a lot of times in the agency world or in the entrepreneurship world or whatever, it’s, you know, we can tell ourselves like, when am I gonna get to 10 K, what am I gonna get to 10 K, what am I going to get Ken K and we, we struggle because we’re so distraught of like, Aw man, we think it should happen now or we think we should do this.

Josh (00:33:08):
But if you change the target, if you change what you’re going after and you make this mental decision to say, okay, not when can I get to 10 K it’s like how am I going to get to 10 K right? And, and, and, or you know, whatever that question shift is and reset the target and reset the goal to not be when, when the, when the ultimate goal is $10,000 rather than the immediate goal is $10,000. I think those are two very key different things. Like the ultimate goal has to be bigger than that, that that 10 K Mark or whatever that is just needs to be a step. You know what I mean?

Joel (00:33:37):
100% and also just to add to that, I think you evolving as a human being, and I think we talked about this on the last episode. If you want to be a seven figure entrepreneur, you have to be a seven figure human being. Yeah. There’s a reason why Tony Robbins has all these like $50 million companies. Yup. Because as a human being, he has evolved to be able to earn the right to that. Yeah. Yeah. I think one of the shifts, like every single shift in my agency, yes, there were some technical things that we change and yes, there’s a blueprint and yes, all that external stuff is out there, but I think also I truly leveled up as a human being because the person I am today looks absolutely nothing like the person that started the agency almost three years ago. Yup. Yup. For sure. Before if you told me that I had to delegate something, I would freak out and get upset. Like get mad at you. Now if you tell me that I have to do something, I freaked out and get mad. That’s a fun. It has a fundamentally different shift right there.

Josh (00:34:52):
And I think that, you know, for those of you that have never over the people out there that have never delegated something before and understand the power of that, it’s actually a really good thing because like, it’s not that you’re lazy, it’s not that you don’t want, aren’t willing to do the work because you are, it’s the fact that like, I think, and I’d love to for you to speak on this a little bit more, like you’re actually doing the business and your clients and everybody else a disservice by doing things that you shouldn’t be focusing on because you’ve gotta be focusing on the thing that’s ultimately going to make your business and service best. And there’s someone that does something every single day and if you take that away from them, you’re going to screw up the system. You’re going to screw up the process, you’re gonna script the results. Like you’ve got to follow through on things. You know what I mean?

Joel (00:35:31):
Yeah. You have to determine your highest value task and that thing evolved over time, right? Your highest value tasks when you’re just starting out is most likely sales when you run a seven figure business. My highest value task could literally be reading books and thinking about the future. Yeah. That may possibly meet be my highest value task. Yep. So if you really want to create the best product, the best service for your clients and serve them at the highest level possible, you need to really understand what your highest value task is and delegate everything else. Yeah, that’s what I believe in. Obviously it’s not perfect, but every little place where I can do that, I definitely do it. For example, right now I want to really blow up my Facebook group and create more content.

Joel (00:36:27):
I’m hiring someone just to manage that entire process because I know for a fact that even having me reach out to people to schedule the interviews and all that stuff is not the highest value thing that I can do. Yeah.

Josh (00:36:40):
Yeah. It’s super interesting that you say that to you. I was talking to Dan Henry at funnel hacking live and we’re talking about like, you know his processes and stuff like that. And he was telling me, he’s like, yeah, I was sitting on a call one time and he said, I started asking people for $50,000 rather than $30,000 right. And he’s like, that was, that was the only shift. One day I was just picking tire to sell selling stuff for $30,000 so I got on the phone and I was like, it’s $80,000 dude, join my whatever now or whatever. And he goes through, he’s like, that was a good week.

Josh (00:37:04):
We punched in an extra, I think he said he was actually a hundred grand or something that week that they put into it. And at the end of that, now keep in mind, this dude just told me that because he was the ones that on those calls and doing it now, they punched in an extra 100,000 of what they would’ve done over that. Right. Or over the normal. And then he goes, but honestly, dude, I don’t have time to sit on my own sales calls. He’s like, it’s a waste of time for me. I need to be putting my time elsewhere. And I was like, I agree. Like I hear that and I go, but it hit me because I was like, that just shows you, there’s the power of leverage you just gave me so excited. Josh, go for it last time. Um, there’s been people that want to join my coaching program where I know I easily take a 10 minute call and enroll them and not have to pay out $1,500 commissions to my sales guy, but that’s not the best use of my time.

Joel (00:37:57):
Yeah. I know that if I stick to a habit where I’m jumping in, not only am I not freeing myself over time to spend all of my energy on my highest value test, I’m also telling my team that I don’t believe in them and that I don’t trust them to do it without. Yup. Yup. That is extremely dangerous. Yup. I think, um, do you know Taylor Welch? Yeah. Okay. So I was talking to him and uh, he’s like, one of the biggest things that people fail to do is they fail to look at the second and third and fourth orders of consequences of their actions. And he’s like, everybody goes and looks at the first order. And so it’s like, you know, he used

Josh (00:38:36):
the example of, you know, Oh, if I eat this cookie or if, you know, if I don’t work out today, that’s not a big deal. Right? But you don’t look at the second, third and fourth one. But then he’s like, where people miss it even more is when the action that they take, they think is a good thing. For example, what you’re saying right there of what the heck I could just jump in and take this call. I know for sure I would close it. I’d save myself 1500 bucks and I could either pay myself that commission or rather than, you know, ten two hours on a call or an hour and I call it only take me 10 minutes. That seems like a good use of my time. And in the first order of consequences of your actions, it looks good and he maybe even the second order of consequences, but what you said the third, the fourth, the habits that you’re creating, the fact that you’re allowing yourself to even think about jumping into those calls means that your mind is not on a state of scaling or on growth or doing what it is that you need to do.

Josh (00:39:25):
And keep in mind like at the beginning when you’re just starting out with your business, if that’s where you need to be, great. But when you, this minute, and I’m curious, I’m actually really, really curious about this for you, when it comes to what you teach people to do in the scaling process, the minute that you’re, you have the cashflow that you need and that you can remove yourself from the process and you’re not, is the minute that you start hurting yourself. So like how do you teach people? Like at what point should they be hiring a sales person? At what point should they be scaling? If you have no capital to invest, sorry, you’re going to have to put in the work and do it yourself unfortunately. Yep. The capital to invest, you have to treat your business like a real estate investment where you put in the team, you put in the infrastructure, you delegate everything out.

Joel (00:40:13):
Even if that means going into the red for just a little bit so that in a few months you walk away with a profitable business that doesn’t rely on. So if you have the capital to invest, you build the entire machine to function without you and you only focus on the things that are the highest value to the organization. So, so at what point do you consider making the switch over? Like let’s say I’m broke, right? I’m a new agency owner and I’ve got three grand in my bank account, right? I have no money. So I’m going to go and I’m going to set up my LLC and I’m going to, you know, go out and get my first client or whatever. At what point do I make the switch and start hiring and other people? My, my whole philosophy is as soon as you have $500 a month to spend, you need to hire a virtual assistant. That’s your very first hire. If you’re broke, you don’t have money. As soon as you have $500 a month and if you, yeah, $500 a month. Again, if you trust in yourself and in your ability to generate more business by delegating things out, then I would put all that money into a virtual assistant. This virtual assistant is going to be in charge of prospecting and doing all of the manual labor behind reaching out to potential businesses. That’s your very first hire. As soon as scale up

Joel (00:41:34):
to, I’d say like 10 K a month and you have a consistent way of generating appointments. Then if you’re really good at sales, you need to hire an account manager ASAP. If you’re not good at sales, you want to hire a closer. Then as soon as you get overwhelmed with client management, the moment that happens, then you hire an account manager if you haven’t already, and then you start bringing in VA’s on an as needed basis to do fulfillment. How many, sorry, go ahead. If you had capital, the way that we build agency teams is we start a brand new agency. We just launched a new agency for example, three days ago. We already are paying an account manager. We’re already paying a closer, we’re already paying a virtual assistant. We’re already paying a marketing manager before it even launched because you have capital and it’s at about like I’d say with without ad spend, that costs us about $12,000 a month, maybe $10,000 a month.

Joel (00:42:39):
Uh, with that spend in, by Aspen, I mean that’s been to get us clients, we’re spending about 25 grand a month, uh, in that business. Those are just the expenses. So we need about 15 to 20 clients to break even. And then anything after that, it’s pure profit. But we know because we trust in our abilities that we can get to 50 clients within 90 days. Now we have something that after expenses is already profiting us. $20,000 a month. Not doing anything ourselves. Yeah. How many, how many clients can typically a an account manager handle a hundred really that many. If you have good systems in place and a, if all they do as account management, then 100 the problem is that most agencies hire an account manager to do more things than just client communication and client relationship. So our account managers are only in charge of a few things, onboarding calls, so they, they get on a call with every new client, they onboard them, they have, they make sure everything is good to go, they have everything they need to succeed.

Joel (00:43:51):
Did you check in calls and they do client communication, so emails, support tickets, all that stuff, but that’s the only thing they do. Interesting. How often are you checking in with your clients? Once a month, a mandatory check-in and then on an as needed basis can, can the client just schedule a call with the account manager whenever, whenever they want. I like that a lot. That is super cause cause most businesses are, I mean it’s just not coaching. It’s client work. Right? So it’s not like they’re going to be calling them every day or every week or whatever. They’re just going to be checking in as needed. It depends on the client, the ideal client at least.

Josh (00:44:27):
Um, how are you doing prospecting? I mean I know you have your VA do it, but is that through Facebook ads? Are you doing cold outreach? Like what are you doing?

Joel (00:44:34):
That’s a great question. It depends if you have money or if you don’t have money to invest. Again, there’s, there’s, there’s two ways to build an agency. If you have capital and if you’re just starting out and you don’t have capital to invest, if you have capital to invest, the way we grow agencies, this is, this is our secret three ways to land. Like we were probably landing like last month we got 37 new clients. Wow. This is absolutely insane. That’s [inaudible] bro. Dude, that’s, that’s more than a client a day. That’s insane. It really is, man.

Josh (00:45:07):
And what do you want, just real quick, what do you charge your clients? What is that like?

Joel (00:45:23):
So we run ads to get clients for ourselves. A number two going to events like conferences, selling at a booth. We do that like once per quarter just because it gives you a really nice client injection. Yeah. And then referrals, we have a top secret referral program that like spits out new clients like crazy. For example, we did a referral contest in December and one guy referred I think like over 50 people over email. It’s just, it’s nuts. Um, so those are the big three. If you have capital to invest, if you don’t have capital to invest, I recommend picking five channels for prospecting where your VA is going to reach out on your bed. It could be cold email, LinkedIn, Facebook page, DMS, Instagram page, DMS, and just friending people in your niche on Facebook and sending them a DM once they accept your friend request and your VA’s doing this on your behalf every single day.

Joel (00:46:24):
And that’s why your first hire needs to be a virtual assistant for prospecting because they would be in charge of those five things every single day. Now, this is all outbound, so it’s tougher. It’s not. The lead will never be as warm as if they come to you through a referral or through an ad or at an event. But if you don’t have money, that is going to be the fastest way to plant a ton of seeds and have those seeds turn into clients. What’s, what’s your, uh, average cost to acquire a customer? Acquire a client on, on paid ads like 900 bucks. Really? That’s not terrible at all. That’s super good. We also are in like heavy. Let’s dominate. We’re spend everyone just so that we can take control of the market essentially. I mean, that’s what Russell Brunson talks about, man. I mean, he has said of what a million times, if I can outspend Mike, if I can outspend to acquire a customer, I’ll win every time.

Joel (00:47:27):
And like now we have momentum that’s only possible through spending that much. Like now people see us and they’re like, Oh, it’s heartless or Oh, like I’ve seen you guys for forever. Yeah. Yeah. It creates a psychological shift. A Doroty. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Authority. That’s what it is. And uh, I would say it could definitely be lower. We don’t care. Like we’re spending a ton of like brand awareness, retargeting ads just to be everywhere at all places at all times. Yeah, for sure. And like, honestly, like who cares? I mean 2,500 bucks a month for $900 for a client. I mean, you’re, you’re profitable month one. You know what I mean? Yeah. And we’ve had clients stay up to, like, we’ve had clients stay from the beginning, like up to three years now. So that’s awesome. It means you’re providing a good service. What do you think is the biggest struggle for people in the agency space for keeping clients? That’s a great question. Uh, I believe that retention is not a matter of results. It’s a matter of psychology inter. So you’re actually, let me pull up my retention formula. Have it written down. Where is it? Could actually break it down for you guys.

Joel (00:48:47):
Okay. Uh, number one, focus the relationship above all else. I think a lot of people get a client like, Oh, I’m going to send them leads or book appointments for them. They forget about the relationship. I have clients that even up until this day, even though I have removed myself from the agency and I don’t have to touch a thing, I still maintain a solid, solid relationship because I know that I was their first touch point when they joined us over two years ago. Yeah. I would be an asshole if I just ghosted them. Yeah. So the very first, uh, pillar to retention is relationships. Number two, flawless onboarding. Our very first month has to be perfect. It absolutely has to be perfect. We cannot screw up the first 30 days. Yeah, that’s huge. It is. We make it very clear to our account managers. I don’t care if you screw up three months in, I don’t care if there’s a little technical error. I want the first month, that first impression to be flawless.

Joel (00:49:49):
And I think a lot of people don’t have a flawless onboarding process. They send out this Google form. It’s like not, it’s a little awkward. It’s not clear. It’s confused. By the time the client’s confused, you’ve already lost it. They’re already doubting you started the campaign. Yeah. So flawless onboarding. Uh, number three, over-communication. We believe in always being one step ahead. So for example, let’s say you lose your entire business manager, which has happened to us. Instead of just pretending like nothing happened, which a lot of people do, and they’re like, Oh, I’m just going to wait here, like scared, nervous and see if anyone reaches out to me. Instead of doing that, we take a proactive approach and we’ll reach out to every single client and say, Hey, we’re having technical issues. We are on top of it. We’re going to be sending you updates. If you need anything at all, just email us at our support email and we’re going to credit you for every single date that the ads are stopped. And instead of them freaking out and being upset with us for this higher shit show, they’re actually extremely grateful. Yeah. And it helps us build trust. So communication always being one step ahead and I can go a little faster through these setting great expectations. I am like super, super, super strict on setting great expectations. Yeah. We make our clients sign an expectations agreement.

Josh (00:51:17):
That’s huge. That’s huge. I think that’s super important. And because, so I deal with a lot of like high ticket client type stuff and um, a lot of people automatically assume that because they pay a lot of money that they get more access to you or they can call you whenever you want or whatnot. Like I like almost try to disqualify my people like during those first that, well during the sales call and the first week, like anytime where they even just step over the line just a little bit, I said, I’ll go, Hey, this was the expectation, this was the agreement and I, you know, we over-deliver obviously and make sure they’re happy and satisfied, but having clear expectations and agreements of how communication is going to go and what they can expect just and, and sticking to those, I think it’s almost, I think it’s almost just as hard for us as business owners to stick to strict expectations as it is for the, the person to get used to that. But once that’s there, I feel like there’s this beautiful relationship of like, Oh no, that’s not what I paid him for or her for. Like this is what I’m going to expect. And then if I need more than that, I expect to have to pay more. And I think like for example, a lot of lead gen agencies

Joel (00:52:24):
or like, Oh my clients don’t follow up with the leads. My clients don’t follow up with the leads. My clients don’t follow up with the leads and then they start to blame me. And this is why they leave. Well, we have our clients sign an agreement where they check off a box saying that they’re going to follow up 10 times before giving up on a lead. That’s awesome. And then they sign it. It’s in a DocuSign. So it’s like, let’s say that you then check on their spreadsheet and you realize, Oh my God, they’re not. They’re only following up one time. Then I could say, look, dr John, you signed the agreement. You know, you know you need to do in order to succeed.

Josh (00:53:05):
That’s crazy. That’s awesome. So setting great expectations. Um, I don’t know if you want me to keep going through this. We can or we could do a couple more. Yeah. Uh, let’s see. Always having something new. Again,

Joel (00:53:17):
we w we want to keep these people excited. This is a longterm relationship. They did not sign up for one thing. They just get and keep paying you for the next five years. You, you need to psychologically get them excited. Like, that’s just how we are as human beings. And this is why I say all the time, this is actually something that our COO came up with, but now I’m stealing it. And she says retention is not a matter of results. It’s a matter of psychology. I’ve had clients leave me, they got a 12 X return. It’s crazy. They made, they made it 12 they put in $1, they got 12 back and they still left. I’ve also had clients that are barely making it work and they stick for a long time because they know that this has massive potential for them. Yeah. So of course results matter and you have to deliver a great product and service.

Joel (00:54:09):
But it’s a matter of psychology at the end of the day. So always having something new. And then I’d S I’d say the next, I’ll just wrap up with two more. Yeah. Always innovating your product, adding more value, having the best product or service in the world. Everyone talks about some magic pill to retention. You know what the magic pill is just being better. Yup. Yup. And that for a long time marketers were complaining that their clients couldn’t close the leads. Now I remember having a conversation with Marco’s my business partner. We were like, yo, this is a massive opportunity because everyone else is complaining about this, but if we can solve that issue for clients and help them close the leads, then we’re going to have a better product and service than everyone else. So just always, always, always innovating your product and service and figuring out ways to add more value and taking every single complaint, issue, error, lack of results, and using that as data to make your product and service even stronger.

Josh (00:55:28):
Yeah, so this is all a presentation that I make my account managers go through. Any new account managers has to sit through this. That’s awesome. They just hear me yell for an hour.

Josh (00:55:37):
What would you say is your biggest piece of advice for somebody in the agency space? Like they’re just getting started or let’s say, let’s say they’re at, let’s say they’ve had some success. Let’s say they’re 10,000 bucks a month, right? They’ve got three or four clients, maybe five. And they’re struggling with retention maybe. Um, but they can, they’re, they’re at that $10,000 ish hump and they want to start scaling. They want to go to 20, 30, 50,000, $100,000 a month. What’s your number one piece of advice for them?

Joel (00:56:05):
It’s a great question. I think once you get to that point, you start to want to fill up your brain with more information and be extremely proactive. When in that moment you still can’t afford to be proactive. You still have to be reactive. Hmm. So for example, I had a student come to me just the other day and he’s worried about all these things that do that do not matter. Right now it’s like, well uh, and cause, cause once you get to 10 K a month, you have a little bit more time, you’re a little bit more confident, you almost take your foot off the pedal a little. Yep. And you have to make sure to accelerate at maximum speed, continue to focus on setting and closing appointments as your number one priority. Yep. And continue to play the game from a reactive standpoint instead of a proactive standpoint. Because again, this is the level where most people are like, okay, now I have the time to redesign my logo, rebuild my website.

Joel (00:57:12):
Yeah. Do all these things that do not matter. I’ve had so many students at 10K a month I’d come to me and now they’re like, well don’t I have to, I hired you for the systems. Isn’t it time for me to build the systems? Mike know if you want to build maybe one system or two systems and delegate one or two things, that’s fine. But right now we still need to focus on setting and closing appointments. Like our life depends. Depends on it. Yup. Yup. I like that a lot. That’s super, I like what you said about uh, they, they start to try to be proactive when they can’t. They still have to operate like they’re reactive. And for those of you that are listening right now are watching, like really think about that and really focus on that because there’s a fundamental difference in how you operate when you’re proactive versus reactive.

Josh (00:57:54):
And a lot of people think that reactive is a bad thing, but at the beginning and when you’re scaling, like when you are proactive, you, I believe that you slow down on a lot of things and while that’s not always bad, but when you’re at a certain point, reactive says, I’m going to continue to go and execute and go, go, go, go, go and deal with problems as they arise. I’m not going to get freaked out and try to spot problems before they’re there. At some point in your business, when you’re doing $100,000 a month, $200,000 a month, then you can start a, for a Ford to be proactive and you can put people in place that will allow you, they will be reactive and you will be the one that’s proactive. But until you get to that point, I think it’s huge to operate in that reactive state. Um, which is opposite where the one, I think a lot of people think.

Joel (00:58:37):
I’d say $50,000 a month consistent, $50,000 a month in your agency. That’s when you start becoming proactive, proactive, and you’re like, okay, let me take a step back. Let me really build out the systems, let me start to really build out the team. But until then, the biggest mistake I see is all these people doing 10 20 or even 30 K a month, they’re worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet. And I would much rather them deal with issues as they come and clear up that brain space and funnel it into focusing on setting and closing appointments. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. And now worrying about like, well, you know, I have to build the SRPs right now. I’m like, you still only have five clients. Let’s worry about

Joel (00:59:22):
the SOP on the systems when you literally can’t handle it. And again, if you don’t have the capital to invest into a team upfront, you have to be willing to eat crap. Yeah. And you have to be willing to suffer through the pain of scaling a seven figure business and then automating. Yup. Yup, yup. And I think a lot of people at 10 K a month, they get like that first bit of success and they’re like, Oh, I made it. Now I can focus on removing myself. Not now. I can focus on all these things that you haven’t earned the right to focus on. Yup. That’s big. So dude, what’s next for you? You’re rich now, you know, because you make all this money and about, right, right, right, right. But uh, I mean, you’re doing big things for sure. You’re, you’re well on your path to being a very successful human being, very wealthy human being.

Josh (01:00:17):
What’s next? Like, what’s a, what’s that three year, five year, 10 year goal down the road from, this is a, I means it’s continue to scale this dorm are agencies, is there a buyout plan? Do you want to maybe meet? Is it just sell and travel the world and Dan Henry style, you know, like peace out and never talk to anybody again or like what’s the, what’s the big goal? Okay, that’s a great question. Here’s my vision. Within the next five years we’re going to scale 50 agencies to seven figures. They’re each going to be doing about 50 K a month in profit any more. After that, it’s kind of unnecessary. We’d rather go horizontal and scale that up. My coaching program is going to be scaled up to eight figures. I want it to be an eight figure company and then I’m going to take all that cash and all that leverage invested into cashflowing real estate and then create secured income for the rest of my life, which will then allow me to focus on solving massive, massive, massive problems in education space. I love this so much. I feel like we’re going to work together in the future, bro. Education is my passion dude.

Joel (01:01:30):
And I’ve spoken to like, I actually came when I, when I S at the beginning of this interview I talked about doing marketing ever since my first job, I’ve only worked in education technology companies. So I was very passionate about solving issues in education space and I actually worked for a company that created a personality test for teachers and students to better understand each other, which I love. But the problem that I saw is that they were always running out of money so they didn’t have leverage to actually focus longterm and giving everything they’ve got to solving the educational problem. And that’s where my mission of making money and making a difference came from because I quickly realized that if I want to tackle a massive, massive, massive problem and need a crap ton of money, you need a lot of crap. Ton of leverage. Yeah, no, no, no. If you know Blake Newbar but yeah, dude, same exact vision. He actually started a content company in the education space and he realized I’m going up against like a mammoth, like I’m the most, yeah, the most difficult probably system in the whole world. [inaudible] system. Yeah. And I think like Tom Bilyeu is doing it correctly. I think, uh,

Josh (01:02:48):
dude, hold on. How the GDC, his speech, I did not, dude. Oh my gosh. It was my favorite one of all funnel hacking live. He gets done and he goes, um, I always had a goal and I don’t cuss, I’m not going to use these exact words, but he said, um, I always had a goal. He’s like, I was going to go, I was going to create a big, huge company. I was going to sell it for a lot of money, and then I was going to go use that money to go start a company that was going to become the next Disney. And I knew I needed a studio to do that. So I was going to go, I was going to make a bunch of money to company. I was going to sell it. I was gonna build a studio and I’m gonna go out and and make the next Disney. And then he stands up on stage and he goes and mother, guess what I’m doing? And it was like the exact day. I mean when he built question a billion dollar company sole, it has a studio do an impact theory and on his way to do that. Next thing. I love that when you have a vision, when you have a goal and you know what you’re doing, it is incredible. It’s insane what you can accomplish.

Joel (01:03:40):
That’s the key. And I know that the educational problem will take years. It’s not a like, and by years I mean decades. You could take the rest of my life. Yeah. Yeah. So if I’m not set up to be able to take care of myself first in order to focus on that longterm, then I will fail. Yup. So my mission right now is in my, like the next three to five years is simple. It’s just to stack as much cash as possible while continuing to serve my clients and my students at the highest level possible. Then eventually go into cash flowing real estate, which will secure income for myself and my family for the rest of my life. So I can go out and do big things. I love it. If you look at someone like a Elon Musk, same thing. Yep. Pay PayPal was not solving a massive problem. It’s very valuable. It wasn’t solving a problem. He was truly passionate right now. He was just securing income for himself so that he can leverage that to go out and recruit and build something that could actually solve

Josh (01:04:49):
gigantic, a huge problem, a huge problem. Which he’s inspiring dude. Like that guy’s insane. Like for real, for real. Joel, thank you so much for coming on. It’s been over time already, but uh, it feels like it went so fast. This is incredible. And um, we didn’t even get to go through guys. We had this whole entire thing planned. We were going to go through like a checklist and a sheet, um, from Joel. We’ll send that out to everybody. We’ll use it as a little lead magnet or something for you guys to listen to the episode. Um, but do thank you so much for coming on here. It’s been a pleasure. Um, any last words or anything that you want to share with people about anything?

Joel (01:05:40):
Let’s see. Guys, if you haven’t followed me on Instagram yet @OfficialJoelKaplan. Got a Facebook group called Marketing Agency Secrets. Go check that out. And, if you want to learn more about scaling and agency, just shoot me with a DM and I’m more than happy to help out.

Josh (01:05:58):
I love it. I love it. Joel, thank you so much for your time. Guys, If you want to learn how to scale an agency the right way, Joel is someone I highly recommend and endorse. He is… I’ve known Joel for almost two years now. I think the first time we ever met actually was at… what? JR’s? I think it was JR’s event down in Atlanta. And, you were just like this hyped up energy dude, and I was like, “Oh, this dude seems cool.” And, sure enough, I mean, look at you now. So, he’s someone that I’ve literally watched build this up from going and figuring it out, to now having this. And he’s someone that does it the right way. It’s legit. He’s not hype, he’s not fluff, and he’s not just trying to sell you a program. I mean, he’s actually going through and doing it like he says. He makes… he makes most of his money through the actual agency work. So Joel, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming on here, my man. Guys, we’ll link his stuff down below as well, either in the audio description, or if it’s on YouTube or Facebook, we’ll put his links down below there as well.

Josh (01:06:48):
As always, hustle, hustle. God bless. Do not be afraid to think different because those of us that think different are going to be the ones that change the world. Next week, we’ll be back. It’s the weekend now, but we’ll be back Monday. We have Julie Stoian on for round two talking about how to collectively move on as a society in the world of, or with post Trump. So, don’t miss that, cause that’s going to be a great episode. We have some cool guests next week as well. We got Brad Gibb coming back on, we got Kathryn Jones coming back on as well, which will be super, super fun. Joel, we’ll see if we can get you to the number one most downloaded episode very soon. Thank you so much. Guys, I love you all, and I will see you very, very soon. Take it easy fam. Peace.

Outro (01:07:26):
Yo, what’s up guys? You’ve been listening to The Think Different Theory with myself, Josh Forti, which I like to call, “A new paradigm of thinking”, and real quick, I got a question for you. Did you like this episode? If you did, I want to ask a huge favor. See, the biggest thing that helps this podcast grow, and that will spread this message of positivity and making the world a better place, is if you leave a review, a rating and subscribe to the podcast. What that does is, it basically tells the platforms that this is out on, that you like my stuff, and that I’m doing something right. So if you could take like three seconds out of your day and subscribe, leave a rating, and a review, I would be forever grateful for you. Also, I want to hear from you. I want to know your feedback, your ideas, and your questions for future episodes. So be sure to hit me up on Instagram in the DM @JoshForti or via email contact@ThinkDifferentTheory.com